Welcome to the Center for Latin American Studies at Rutgers University. We are a young and dynamic institution, growing in all sorts of new and exciting directions. The Center offers a major and minor in Latin American Studies for undergraduate students, and sponsors talks and events annually dedicated to Latin American themes. We are especially active in international education: Through the Study Abroad office,  we operate an Anthropology field school and service-learning program in Bolivia, a semester- or year-long study abroad program in Mexico, a summer ESL program in Costa Rica, and we are exploring new opportunities for international study and service in other countries as well. The Center for Latin American Studies also coordinates Rutgers’ relationship with the Universidad in Oaxaca, México, with which we are developing a number of collaborative programs.

The mission of the Rutgers University Center for Latin American Studies is to promote pedagogy, research, and service in and about the broader region known as Las Américas. We aim to educate undergraduate and graduate students about the region, through courses, programs of study, and extracurricular events, so as to increase awareness and understanding of Latin America in the United States, and of the many ways in which these two regions are deeply conjoined. In the area of research, our objective is to generate new insights into Latin American culture, politics, economics, art, society, environment  and ecology, in every area of the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. We believe, too, that all engagement between North and Latin America, be it pedagogical or scholarly, should be characterized by openness, reciprocity, and mutuality. Therefore, another aspect of our mission is to offer service opportunities to our students, to create positive encounters between researchers and students across the hemisphere, and to ensure that all of our engagements promote good relations between people in all the countries and regions of the Americas.

We encourage you to explore our website and learn more about what we do. If you are a student looking for study or service opportunities in Latin America, please contact our office.